The blog contains articles by the author which appear in various newspapers in Kashmir and are also available on the website: www.kashmirfirst.com

Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Aadhar reminds of Orwell’s 1984!

(Aadhar,
the new ID card which is virtual indexing of the entire population, is
reminiscent of George Orwell’s famous novel 1984!)

One of the most
important aspects of a totalitarian or a fascist regime is indexing of the
population so as to keep watch over their activities. It is virtually practical
implementation of the famous slogan in 1984, the “Big Brother is Watching You”
in a different form and shape. The pupil scan, the finger prints, the
photograph and all other particulars for each citizen are being digitised. Additionally,
DNA and many other biometric elements are being added. Subsequently, all
activities are being linked to the Aadhar number. Imagine digitising the entire
population of 1.25 billion people! It must be the biggest enterprise of this
type in history. The digital India of the future! The data base must be
massive. On the positive side it may be a big help in doing away with forms,
applications and so on. Just keeping a finger on the digital finger print
reader gives out all one’s parameters! Definitely, it is going to end a lot of
paper work. The entire project is being executed by private companies with
foreign collaboration.

There are umpteen
articles on the Google about the advantages and disadvantages of the Aadhar
project. It would be interesting to reproduce some of the observations. Aamjanta.com
has an article “Intellectual Anarchy” which gives a detailed background of the
Aadhar project. Some portions are quoted here for the information of people in
general. “The Aadhar is the Unique Identity number for India. The project
involves issuing identity cards to all citizens which will have their biometric
data stored on computers, very strangely, located in USA. Virtually, it is a
Silicon Valley project! The cost of the project is estimated to be Rupees 1,
50, 000 crores! Incidentally the entire census project in 2011 which reached
every citizen and created an information base that is of tremendous utility and
diverse applications, cost only 2200 crores! Additionally,
while the investment is done using government funds, ready databases will be
controlled by private entities (who will profit from offering identification
services), and the government will be paying customers of the databases it has
already spent a bomb to create”.

Another
website, moneyline.in carries an article by Gopal Krishna of Civil Liberties
Organisation. Some excerpts from it: “The most worrisome aspect is the invasion
of privacy of the citizens. Right
to privacy and freedom belong to citizens by right. It is not granted by
government. A government is the servant of the citizens, not its master.
Governments are supposed to seek the permission to limit these rights in
certain circumstances. It signals a break-down of a democratic government if it
chooses to engage in indiscriminate surveillance of citizens or to impose a system
of compulsory identification or to open a file on each citizen or to
criminalise citizens who refuse to comply.”

“Biometric
identification treats Indian citizens worse than slaves. It is an act of
identification prior to any act of omission and commission. It is a case
of a deepening of everyday surveillance. It is similar to what was done under
the Britain's Habitual Criminals Act of 1869 required police to keep an
“Alphabetical Registry” and cross-referenced “Distinctive Marks Registry. The
first held names and the latter contained the descriptions of scars, tattoos,
birthmarks, balding, pockmarks, and other distinguishing features”. The
surveillance aspect is the real worry. Biometrics can allow with the help of
drones locate any person and monitor all activities within seconds! Government
will also be in a position to know of everything by linkage with various
activities.

“The proposed
convergence of biometric information with financial and personal data such as
residence, employment, and medical history heralds the beginning of the
demolition of one of the most important firewalls in the structure of privacy.
Such convergence of databases poses a threat to minorities and political
opponents as they can be targeted in a situation where government is led by any
Nazi party like political formations”. Incidentally, we have the present
dispensation working on those “lines”. People in many of the US States and UK
have rejected similar unique identity number. The privacy laws do not allow
such intrusion.

Incidentally, the
Supreme Court had observed that Aadhar is not mandatory but an optional thing.
However, in spite of these directions, most of the government departments,
banks and other public utility services are coercing people not only to go for Aadhar
but to link all services with it on a compulsory basis. Every day one receives
messages from mobile companies, banks and so on to link Aadhar against pain of
disconnection or closure of accounts! It is really a totalitarian state
coercion.

Keeping in view the
cost of the project and then its utility for the major portion of the
population, one wonders whether it is really worth it. Millions of Indians are
still living below the poverty line where they cannot even afford a square meal
daily! Large portion of the population is without cured water supply. Majority
of the population in rural areas still use fields to ease themselves in spite
of the project to provide toilet facilities all over India. Would it not have
been better to spend this Rupees 1, 50, 000 crores on providing basic welfare
services including the missing healthcare? It is tragic and ironic that Prime
Minister Modi can find crores to give Aadhar card to everyone but there is no
money to give oxygen to dying children in Gorakhpur Hospital! Something to
ponder upon! Isn’t he climbing the wrong tree?